AUSTIN — Like most rural school districts in the South Plains, the Meadow Independent School District in Terry County has limited financial resources.

So, with fewer than 300 students, MISD relies heavily on the Lubbock-based Regional Education Service Center 17, particularly in areas such as budgeting and professional development for teachers and students, said Superintendent Darrion Dover.

“They’re of tremendous help,” Dover said of the 20 Regional Education Service Centers. “They help us meet the demands the state (Legislature) makes on all of us.”

The Lubbock Independent School District, the largest of the 57 districts in the 20-county center (with a student population of more than 30,000), is not as dependent on such services as MISD or other rural counties, said James Arnold, a member of the board of trustees at LISD and recent past president.

However, he recognizes the key role the centers play in helping Texas schools address the academic and other needs of their students, particularly in rural areas, Arnold said.

“I would say that education service centers hold great value in providing services for smaller school districts through Texas,” Arnold said. “Given the vast number of school districts in the state with enrollments under 10,000 students, the centers are an efficient use of state resources.”

But despite the rave reviews all Regional Education Service Centers get, some rural school superintends worry that, as the Texas Legislature faces yet another budget shortfall — perhaps of as much as $15 billion when it is back in session in January — the state funding for the centers may be cut even more, or, totally.

“My feeling is that it’s a real threat,” said Wayne Blunt, superintendent of the Sands Consolidated School District, which educates 225 students in four counties in the southern section of the South Plains — Borden, Dawson, Howard and Martin.

If this happened, “we couldn’t survive without them,” said Blunt who recently testified at a Texas Senate Education Committee hearing.

However, ESC 17 executive director Kyle Wargo, is not as worried.

“Obviously the state has some financial challenges but I think the Legislature is just trying to see where they can trim and at the same time keep the high level of efficiency,” Wargo said.

Something similar happened in the 2005 session, two years after the Legislature tackled another budget shortfall, Wargo recalled. In the 2003 session, as the lawmakers dealt with a $10 billion gap, the Legislature made drastic cuts to public education funding, including a 40 percent funding cut for the centers.

Fortunately, the centers are not totally dependent on state money because they also get funding from the federal government, as well the local governments where they are based, Wargo explained.

In fact, in fiscal year 2009-10 (which has already been audited), of all the funding the centers received, only 14 percent came from the state, according to Wargo. The rest of their funding was from the federal government (48 percent) and local governments (38 percent).

So, basically what the Senate Education Committee did was to review how the centers work and the process is healthy because it allows the lawmakers, educators and the centers to take a good look at what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to be improved. The centers have been in existence for more than 40 years.

Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who chaired the July 17 hearing with the consent of panel chair Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, asked those types of questions during the five-hour hearing.

For instance, to the director of ESC 10 in North Texas, Seliger asked what was its operating annual budget and how much of its funding came from the state. And he also asked what kind of assistance the centers provide to rural school districts.

And Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, asked how often the centers review their programs.

Seliger and Patrick are regarded the most likely candidates to succeed Shapiro. She is retiring when her current four-year term expires on Jan. 8.

Dover, the MISD superintendent, said though he was also concerned about the July 17 hearing, he is not letting those kinds of inquiries get the best of him.

“I don’t lose any sleep over what the Legislature may or may not do,” Dover said. “I know they have a tough job to do and they know that ultimately, kids are going to be affected.”

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